Laala From the Double Planet
|number = 14 |image = File:ep14.jpg |previous = The Fossilized Warrior (Part 2) |next = The Water Kingdom's Beethoven|airdate = 12/14/1978}} The Galaxy Express stops on the Double Planet, a pair of worlds where all of the citizens are machine humans. Tetsuro and Maetel decide to see what the planet has to offer during the lay over while. While at a restaurant, Tetsuro is found out as a flesh-and-blood human and the two of them are set upon by a an outraged mob of machine people who beat up Tetsuro and try to capture Maetel and taxidermy her because of her beauty. Tetsuro shoots his way out of the restaurant but is hit by a car while escaping. Luckily, Laala, the driver of the vehicle, is a doctor and agrees to help Tetsuro. At her lab, Laala swaps bodies with Tetsuro against his will and tries to force Maetel into traveling with her (in Tetsuro's body) on the Galaxy Express so that she may finally escape the planet. Laala and Maetel leave the lab but Laala traps Tetsuro (in Laala's body) there and eventually sets it on fire after departing. When Maetel finds out about the fire, she attacks Laala and leaves to rescue Tetsuro. With the lab destroyed Laala returns to tell Maetel that she has no hope of returning Tetsuro to his natural body and that she should leave the planet with her. Tetsuro attacks Laala and threatens her life unless she finds a way to switch his body back. Laala agrees to and takes he and Maetel to the lab of a fellow doctor named Mestol. When they arrive Mestol and Laala have no intentions of returning Tetsuro to his body; in fact, their plan is to force Maetel to switch with Mestol and then board the Galaxy Express together. Maetel, who brought Tetsuro's pistol along with her, forces the two to give Tetsuro back his body at gun point. With things returned to normal, Maetel tells Tetsuro to return to the Galaxy Express while she finishes up things on the planet. Maetel returns shortly after Tetsuro and the Galaxy Express begins its travel to the next planet on its voyage. As the Double Planet recedes from view, Maetel tells Tetsuro that something is about to happen and he may want to avert his eyes. At first he follows her suggestion, but curiosity wins out and he looks out the window. The two planets collide with each other and are both completely destroyed. Tetsuro is puzzled as to why Maetel thought he wouldn't want to witness such a spectacle, and he then begins to wonder just how Maetel knew and whether she was somehow responsible for it. End Quote "In the vast expanse of space, there are planets that are destroyed by the time light reaches them and after that, nothing remains. The passengers who travel the Galaxy Railways might be the only ones who know that emptiness." Notes * The destruction of the twin planets and Maetel's admonition to Tetsuro not to look back are likely an allusion to the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, twin cities that were destroyed by the Almighty in retaliation for their brutality toward travelers. Characters *Tetsuro Hoshino *Maetel *Conductor *Laala *Mestol Category:Episodes